SABIC to showcase speciality thermoplastics at OFC 2025
SABIC has announced what it will exhibit at the Optical Fiber Communications (OFC) Conference and Exhibition at the end of the month. The company will showcase its high-performance materials, like ULTEM and SILTEM resins and LNP ELCRES polycarbonate copolymers, that allow users to build robust and reliable data infrastructures. Additionally, the chemical industry leader will introduce its new EXTEM RH resin grade at the event.
Designed to withstand 260°C reflow soldering, the EXTEM RH resin has enhanced properties that support high-volume production of multi-lens arrays (MLAs) for optical interconnect assemblies and sub-assemblies. The resin will be included in two demonstrations: a single-mode expanded beam connector assembly and a novel process using metallisation to auto-align MLAs.
“The optimisation of network architecture to handle the explosion of data from AI, cloud, and social and digital media requires infrastructures that can boost transmission speed, bandwidth capacity and reliability,” said Sergi Monros, Vice President, SABIC Polymers, Specialties BU. “SABIC’s speciality thermoplastics and dedicated design services can help the industry build these infrastructures at scale. Our materials enhance the performance, precision, cost-effectiveness and manufacturability of components ranging from connectors and optical interconnects to wire and cable.”
Introducing the new EXTEM RH resin
The EXTEM RH1017UCL resin will be ideal for use with emerging technologies including onboard and co-packaged optical interconnects. This optically transparent material can deliver greater design freedom compared to fused silica and thermosets, supporting scaled-up production and reduced system costs. Surpassing other EXTEM grades with improved near-infrared (IR) light transmission, the new product lowers moisture uptake and makes for easier processing.
SABIC’s data infrastructure showcase at OFC 2025
In addition to optical interconnects and transceiver lenses, SABIC will showcase other infrastructure applications for external installations and data centres, leveraging thermoplastics:
- External fibre optic closures and splice trays moulded from NORYL resin or LNP ELCRES copolymer resin.
- Fibre optic and electrical connectors benefit from Superflow ULTEM resins, enabling thin-wall, miniaturised designs, and from ULTEM EPR resins.
- A potential alternative to fluoropolymers, SILTEM resins could provide high heat performance and easy processing in wire & cable jacketing and insulation.
Attendees of OFC 2025 (30 March- 3 April) can locate SABIC at Booth #6244.